Unlocking iPhone 4, catch 22 situation

PaulyD · 18 Oct 2011 at 06:39

Someone else would have got your unlock but your phone will still be locked to orange unfortunately mate, it's only brand new phones that will come unlocked out of the box. Replacements will be just as locked as the faulty one you took in

Raymond Lin · 18 Oct 2011 at 07:09

PaulyD said:
Someone else would have got your unlock but your phone will still be locked to orange unfortunately mate, it's only brand new phones that will come unlocked out of the box. Replacements will be just as locked as the faulty one you took in

So apple gives out replacement carrier specific instore?

It seems you are right, been googling and apple just port the carrier setting across when they give out the replacement.

now what do I do?

Call orange and explain or apple and show them my email that I paid already?

Skully · 18 Oct 2011 at 09:57

Come to my office at lunch, use my iTunes and sim card.

Stop wasting money.

Raymond Lin · 18 Oct 2011 at 13:34

Skully said:
Come to my office at lunch, use my iTunes and sim card.

Stop wasting money.

I would, except Orange is being a PITA.

I rang up and informed them what has happened with regards to a replacement phone from Apple. After on hold for 20 minutes they told me that they can only unlock the phone that is paired with the sim. I told them my IMEI number that i am calling from but they said they are unable to unlock it.

The silver lining is that i got my money back on my account, but from what i have been told, they can unlock any phone they want right?

scratch · 18 Oct 2011 at 16:02

Sounds like Orange are just being difficult!

I had the same issue with an unlock requested being rejected because of having my handset swapped out by Apple. O2 initially rejected my request because the IMEI of my handset didn't match the one they had recorded against my account.

I phoned them up though and explained what had happened and they had no problem in swapping over the IMEIs. I had a text from the later that day advising me that the phone had been unlocked.

I'd suggest phoning Orange again and seeing if speaking to somebody else might give you a different result.

ray168 · 18 Oct 2011 at 16:21

vodafone are giving free pay as go micro sims at the moment on there website... this might help you.

Raymond Lin · 18 Oct 2011 at 20:03

scratch said:
Sounds like Orange are just being difficult!

I had the same issue with an unlock requested being rejected because of having my handset swapped out by Apple. O2 initially rejected my request because the IMEI of my handset didn't match the one they had recorded against my account.

I phoned them up though and explained what had happened and they had no problem in swapping over the IMEIs. I had a text from the later that day advising me that the phone had been unlocked.

I'd suggest phoning Orange again and seeing if speaking to somebody else might give you a different result.

Just did, apparently this 90 days rule applied. The sim has to be paired with the phone for 90 days. Well, I had it for a year ! After much to and fro, she can't budge so I asked to speak to her supervisor.

After being on hold for 10 min, she came back and said "we can see that you have been using your phone for a while so we will make an exception"

Geez, why can't they make that in the actual policy instead of refuse point blank until i ask to speak to someone more senior?